Spaces: Mission tile in all its glory

This home on Grant Avenue in Alamo Heights has an abundance of Mexican tile and alcoves.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

A painting on tiles adorns the entrance area to this home on Grant Avenue in Alamo Heights.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

A tile representing Don Quixote on the steps to the swimming pool of this home on Grant Avenue in Alamo Heights.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

The pool area behind a home on Grant Avenue in Alamo Heights.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

The master bedroom was once an open patio on this home on Grant Avenue in Alamo Heights.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

The kitchen of this home on Grant Avenue features a primitive table and wrought-iron chandelier, large wooden gear from a cotton gin.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

The stairwell features a decorative alcove in this home on Grant Avenue in Alamo Heights.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

The stairwell features a decorative alcove in this home on Grant Avenue in Alamo Heights.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

A table in the backyard features tile work that is irreplaceable.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

A table in the backyard features tile work that is irreplaceable.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

A camel from Turkey adorns a couch in this Grant Avenue home.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

The living room features a fireplace and coved, beamed ceiling on this Grant Avenue home.

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News

A wooden cog and Western-style chair in this home on Grant Avenue in Alamo Heights.

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It's hard to miss the antique Mission tile at Chesley Seals' home on a quiet, shady street in Alamo Heights. That's because it's much in evidence, from a planter by the porch to the patio and pool.

The tile was made locally from the 1930s until 1977. According to the website of tile expert Susan Toomey Frost and her 2009 book “Colors on Clay,” Ethel Wilson Harris and her designer, Fernando Ramos, created the designs and oversaw their creation. The tiles are known for their detailed scenes of life in Mexico.

Seals grew up in the Alamo Heights home, which her parents bought in the mid-'70s. They believe it was built in the late 1920s, but they don't know anything about the original owners. Obviously, though, those owners loved Mission tile.

“When I was growing up, I took the tile for granted, but now I realize how special it is,” Seals says. “It's all about Mexican arts and culture. Tile like this isn't made anymore.”

The two-story, Spanish-style home has thick stucco walls, a red tile roof and several balconies. The downstairs has pegged wooden floors and beamed ceilings. Large windows let in lots of light upstairs and down, and archways connect rooms in the public areas of the house.

But what catches the eye are the tiles, starting with the ones along the edge of the driveway and continuing to a scene of two men with a donkey on a long planter next to the front porch.

The backyard is a showplace, dominated by a large pool with tile around the rim. The stairs up to the pool are fronted with Mission tiles showing Don Quixote, bullfighters and a village scene. The large patio is made from brown and blue tiles.

There's a tiled outdoor fireplace/grill featuring scenes of a man playing the guitar and another with a donkey. Nearby is an icebox that was used to cool drinks; appropriately, it features a tile showing a woman holding a jug.

Pride of place on the patio belongs to a long, wrought-iron table with a Mission tile mural of women making tortillas with snow-capped mountains in the background.

“The detail on the table is amazing,” Seals says.

Inside the home, Seals favors an eclectic style, mixing modern pieces with antiques. The living room combines sleek leather seating with two antique chests, one that her grandfather brought back from Japan in the '50s and another that's an old Mexican dowry chest. A small occasional table was made from a wooden gear that was part of a cotton gin. Its larger mate is in the dining room, along with a Texas primitive-style dining table and a wrought-iron chandelier.

The kitchen is a study in white with an archway over the sink. A small dining area to one side features a round table made by Mennonites living in Mexico.

In the stairwell, a lighted, tiled niche holds a large ceramic egg. Seals' bedroom upstairs once was a porch that was enclosed by a previous owner and has two walls of windows. An adjacent room, with its own fireplace, is used as the media room.

But in the end, it's all about the tile.

“I like to imagine who placed the original tile when the house was built,” Seals says. “I love the history of this house.”